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FFI makes major investment in Silver Trak Digital and Australian Production and Post Production Industries

24/01/2018

Game-changing investment in local market

SYDNEY 22 January 2018 – In a move which represents a significant boost to the Australian production and post production industries, Film Finances Inc (FFI) has made a major investment in media management and facilities company Silver Trak Digital and its parent company Buff Dubs.

FFI is the world’s leading provider of completion contracts to the entertainment industry, which offer assurance to the financiers of film, TV, mini-series and online media content. Since its founding in the 1950s, FFI has issued contracts on approximately 1,700 productions – last year over 50 in Australia alone – with gross budgets in excess of US$17 billion. These include many of the film industry’s best known-titles, ranging from the first Bond movie (Dr. No, 1962) to The Hunger Games (2012) and Oscar winning films such as 12 Years a Slave (2013) and La-La Land (2016).

Silver Trak COO Christian Christiansen explained, “FFI’s investment in Silver Trak is an amazing boost for the Australian production and post production industries as it will help generate work and productions across the board. From Silver Trak and Buff Dubs’ point of view we are very much continuing in the same vein providing media asset management through Media Room and a full range of broadcast facilities including encoding, transcoding, media duplication and mastering. There will also be a significant investment in Buff Dubs Productions.”

Part of the reason behind FFI’s investment in Silver Trak, which they announced on 11 December 2017, is its policy of investing in local production and post-production equipment and services for the entertainment industry in order to complement its work in the global film industry.

Christiansen continued, “Over successive decades FFI has grown globally to become a trusted, iconic brand at the centre of the film industry. This investment means Silver Trak can support all of our clients even more comprehensively than before with the backing of FFI and help create new opportunities for new clients too. The investment also represents a key milestone in FFI leveraging its core completion contract business into a broader ancillary service business in order to serve the growing needs of its customers.”

With offices in Sydney and Melbourne, Silver Trak and Buff Dubs have grown quickly through their ability to process media content of any description and transform, reproduce and aggregate it in the various formats demanded by its clients. This has helped them to secure preferred provider and vendor status with some of the world’s leading media platforms, including Netflix, Apple and Google, as well as gaming platforms including PlayStation and Xbox.

Steven Ransohoff, CEO of FFI Holdings, said: “2017 saw FFI make a concerted expansion as we broadened our business to serve the wider needs of our entertainment industry clients. As with our recent investment in Pivotal Post and EPS-Cineworks, Silver Trak and Buff Dubs bring valuable expertise and customer relationships to FFI. Their vendor relationships across consumer media platforms such as Netflix, Apple and Google are particularly exciting opportunities for FFI as we help our clients reach new audiences with their content.”

Picture credit

Silver Trak COO Christian Christiansen

About FFI Holdings PLC

FFI Holdings PLC (AIM: FFI) is the holding company of Film Finances Inc. (“FFI”), the world’s leading provider of completion contracts to the entertainment industry, which offer assurance to the financiers of film, TV, mini-series and online media content that productions will be completed on time and on budget. These contracts serve to offload risks to production budgets and timelines for financiers, as well as for FFI through long-standing insurance relationships.

Since its founding in the 1950s, FFI has issued contracts on approximately 1,700 productions with gross budgets in excess of US$17 billion. These include many of the film industry’s best known-titles, ranging from the first Bond movie (Dr. No, 1962) to The Hunger Games (2012) and Oscar winning films such as 12 Years a Slave (2013) and La-La Land (2016).

FFI is also a fast-growing global provider of post-production equipment and services for the entertainment industry. FFI entered this business in February 2017 through the acquisition of Pivotal Post and consolidated its position in this market further through the purchase of EPS-Cineworks Digital Studios in November 2017.

Over successive decades FFI has grown globally to become a trusted, iconic brand at the centre of the film industry. Headquartered in Los Angeles, USA, it has 11 offices globally, including in London, Stockholm, Toronto, New York, Cape Town, Cologne and Shanghai.

About Silver Trak Digital

With over 30 years of experience in audio, visual and data content management, Silver Trak Digital provides leading edge media asset management, broadcast duplication, QC, technical assessment, content management, disc duplication and replication services as well as pro media distribution from world leading brands.